US President Joe Biden is preparing plans to launch a re-election campaign after November’s midterm elections. This reports Bloomberg news agency based on conversations with close associates and confidants of Biden. As in 2018, his primary motivation would be to prevent a new Donald Trump presidency.
Polls show that most Democrats prefer a candidate other than the 79-year-old president. But people close to Biden say he feels bolstered by recent legislative, economic and foreign victories. Above all, he is determined to again thwart Trump, who has already hinted at a new candidacy. “The president has said he plans to go for it again,” presidential adviser Anita Dunn said. “People have to take him at his word.”
Three Democratic Congressmen, including Carolyn Maloney of New York, recently suggested that Biden should give way to a younger candidate, while popular Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has already emphatically refused to support his reelection.
Biden regularly notes polls showing he will beat Trump in a head-to-head duel in 2024, White House officials say. And the president would be confident he won the Democratic nomination in 2020 because he had the best chance of dethroning the incumbent president at the time.